Rome: A Layered City

Rome is a layered city. There is new and old everywhere you look. I heard it once decsribed as a lasagna because new buildings are built on top of the old. Construction takes forever here, because as soon as they dig down to build a parking garage or fix a pipe, they discover a lost building or artifact. For this post, I am going to honor the layers of Rome by writing about an old site we visited, and a new tradition we started.

When in Rome, you must see the Vatican (and the Colosseum and the Pantheon and the Spanish steps and so many other things, but I am going to focus on the Vatican, here or else it would be quite a long and boring read). And you must use the saying, “When in Rome” as much as you can J Our first day in the city, Savannah had organized a guided tour of the Vatican. We walked to the Vatican city and were blown away by the beauty of it. Did you know that the Vatican is it’s own country? I think my favorite part of our visit was seeing the Sistine Chapel. I had studied it in school, but seeing slide show photos of it or reading about it in a textbook does no justice to the actual work itself. Our guide gave us a ton of information before we entered, because there is no talking and no photos allowed inside the chapel. He told us how Michelangelo did not want to paint the ceiling and the Pope, with so much power, convince/forced him to do so. Michelangelo, who specialized in sculptures, had to learn how to paint a fresco which is not an easy task. The process includes putting plaster on the ceiling and then applying paint at the perfect time; not too early because it will soak in too much, and not too late because it will crumble off shortly after the plaster dries. Painting a fresco is extremely difficult and requires not only efficiency, but great skill.

After Michelangelo learned how to paint frescoes, he locked himself into the Sistine Chapel and put a sheet below so that if anyone got in they would not be able to see what he was working on. After two** grueling years, arguments with the pope, and lasting back problems from standing and arching backwards to paint, Michelangelo had completed a masterpiece.

Masterpiece has so many definitions and is sometimes applied to too many works of art or literature. But the Sistine Chapel with this amazing ceiling, The Last Judgment painted on the wall and other paintings throughout by other renowned artists, such as Perugino and Bottecelli, is definitely a masterpiece and inspires silence even if the room didn’t require it.

After seeing visiting the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica, something old and full of tradition, Savannah and I visited a gelato place called La Romana to start our own new tradition. Just like the new buildings that stand on top of the old, we, inevitably made our own new mark on a place where millions of others had for thousands of years before us. This time, our mark was in Gelato. The hostal we stayed at recommended La Romana and we decided to check it out. I am so happy that we did, because it was the best gelato I have ever tasted. It was fluffy and sweet, creamy like ice cream but light like gelato and they topped it with homemade airy and decadent whip cream. After our first night, Sav and I revisited the place every single night—one of the workers even began to recognize us. My favorite flavors were the dark chocolate, the biscotti and the yogurt with honey and walnut topped with chocolate whip cream shown in this picture. When in Rome, go to La Romana.

Old and New. New and Old. And Gelato that would never get old. And that’s an un-wrap.